Re: Two uses for .PRECIOUS ?

[Paul D. Smith]

%% address@hidden writes:

  s> My point is that there are two uses for .PRECIOUS: one is to say
  s> "don't delete this file after the final target has been made if is
  s> is created as an intermediate", and the other is to say "don't
  s> delete this file if the command that is creating it is
  s> interrupted".  These are both controlled by .PRECIOUS, but in my
  s> case I want only the first of them.

Mentioning a target explicitly _anywhere_ in the makefile is enough to
keep it from being considered an intermediate file, and thus removed.

Maybe you can create a rule which has as prerequisites all the
intermediate files; this rule doesn't have to actually be invoked.

For example, if you have:

  TARGETS = foo.x bar.x

  .PHONY: all
  all: $(TARGETS)

  %.x : %.y ; cp $< $@

  %.y : %.z ; cp $< $@

  $(TARGETS:.x=.z): ; echo > $@

Then you could add another rule like this, just to keep the .y files
from being considered intermediate:

  .PHONY: intermediates
  intermediates: $(TARGETS:.x=.y)

Who knows, maybe you'll even find that rule handy sometimes :).

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